The CheckerBoard

1. The state of UT Football
2. Top HC candidates
3. The 2012 govols247 poster of the year

The state of UT Football

I’m just gonna break this down the best way I know how and that’s offense, defense, special teams. I’m also going to make a view assumptions based on how I think this class will take shape, because it's fun to do that.

Offense:
QB: Worley, Peterman, Ferguson
Average SEC QBs. I don't see anyone great but they seem competent. Butch has a good history with QBs, so I think he can work with this.

RB: Neal, Lane
They got better and better as the year progressed. Neal has an elite power/speed combination and Lane was running really well to close out the season. I like these guys a lot and expect them to combine for over 1,500 yards next season and that's a conservative number I think.

WR: North, Harris
WR: Croom, Blanc
Slot: Pig, Bowles
I like the looks of this a lot. I think Pig is going to go bananas in this offense. With North & Harris stretching the field and Pig working the slot, we should be able to move the ball; especially if we run the ball as well as we should.

TE: Downs, Meredith
Not world beaters, but they're alright. We do have two projected TEs commited and are working on a couple of JUCO guys.. so I think we'll be fine.

OL: The best in the nation. We should dominate. No defense, including Bama's should be able to penetrate this offensive line. Whoever the QB is, they should have protection. Whoever the RB is, they should have running lanes.

Overall, I think we have the makeup of what could be a ver good offense. We should be able to run the ball on anybody, at least somewhat effectively and we could have some dangerous weapons at WR. Here's to hoping one of the QBs is decent.

Defense:
DE: Lawson, Smith, Lewis
DE: Williams, Bellamy, Miller
DT: BigMac, Sentimore, Hood
DT: Couch, Walls, O'Brien
I know there are 2 big assumptions in this group, but that is one hellacious D-Line.

OLB: Maggit, Vereen
MLB: AJ, Bynum
OLB: JRM, Sapp
Three freshmen in the 2-deep at LB? Not good. Lot of pressure to put on a true freshman to start, so maybe Sapp starts ahead of JRM but I think JRM's playmaking ability will catch the coaches eye during the spring. Gotta love AJ and Maggit though. We should see some big plays from this group, but we may also give up som big plays thanks to inexperience.

CB: Gray, Jones, Thomas
CB: Coleman, Bonner, Sutton, Foreman
Nickel: Gordon, Oliver
I think Gray has the tools to be a good corner in this league adn so does Bonner.. but neither has proven that and Bonner might not even be on the team. We are in trouble here, and this is the position that I think will keep us from competing against elite SEC teams until it improves.

S: Randolph, Johnson, Orta
S: McNeil, Moore
These boys are gonna be crackign helmets this fall. We need them to make some big plays and cause some turnovers in big games in order to win, and they have that ability.

Special Teams
I don't want to talk about it.. but ok. We lost our best kick returner and we don't have and SEC kicker, so... it's not looking good. This is also an area that I think will keep us from competing against elite SEC teams until it improves.

So.. that leads me to this.. How many games will we win in 2013? I'm gonna go with 7. I think we'll beat Peay, WKU, South Alabama, Missouri, Auburn, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky. But hey.. with the best OL in the country, anything is possible. You never know, we could line up against Bama and run it down their throats, force a turnover thanks to pressure from Lawson, and boom.. there you go. But I'll stick with 7 wins.

Top HC candidates
One of my favorite things to do is pretend that I’m an AD. In this role, I’m always prepared for a coaching search. So here is my list of top HC candidates and I’m not going to include Gruden or Stoops, ok? I am however, going to break it down into what I consider “can’t miss” HCs and HCs “worth a look”. Keep in mind that the 2nd group is merely coaches that I’m intrigued by. They either have a history of doing more with less or they have star potential. For the sake of space, I won’t go into detail on each individual coach but I look forward to a discussion on some of these guys ITT.

Can’t Miss:
Hugh Freese (43) – Ole Miss
David Shaw (40) – Stanford
Kevin Sumlin (48) – Texas A&M
Larry Fedora (50) – North Carolina
James Franklin (40) – Vanderbilt
Charlie Strong (52) – Louisville

Worth a look:
Bryan Harsin (35) – Arkansas State
Gary Andersen (48) – Utah State
Mark Hudspeth (44) – UL Lafayette
Paul Chryst (47) – Pittsburgh
Bronco Mendenhall (46) – BYU
Pat Fitzgerald (38) – Northwestern
Kliff Kingsbury (33) – Texas Tech
Ron Caragher (45) – San Jose State
Paul Haynes (43) – Kent State

I’ll also add 3 young DCs that I think will be good HCs: Manny Diaz (38), Kirby Smart (36), and Bob Diaco (39). I also like Narduzzi at Michigan State and Justin Wilcox, but they have more to prove before being considered as HC at a place like Tennessee.

2012 govols247 poster of the year
Don’t lie, you skipped 1 & 2 and went straight to this didn’t you? Smh. That’s ok, I’m over it. On with the presentation of this very prestigious award.

There may have been others who were critical of Dooley early in his tenure, but none more vocal than hdrizzle21. Many of us, including myself, were critical of his criticism but as it turns out, he was right. One of the key attributes associated with this award is the ability to catalyze a healthy debate and no one has done that better than drizz. In fact, drizz is the first and only member of the govols247 20/20 club. Let me explain. He is the only poster in the history of the site that’s started a thread voted +20 AND started a thread voted -20. He has a +45, +20, -25, -17, and -16. I don’t care who you are, that’s impressive. Looking at his most DV’d threads (“Dooley did not manage well”, “In 2 years talent won’t be a problem… coaching will”, and “Dooley is the worst HC in the SEC”), he was pretty spot on and stuck to his guns despite getting hammered by the masses. Because of these things, hzrizzle21 is the winner for 2012 govols247 POY.

Don’t be discouraged. There’s always next year.